"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Saturday, 9 May 2009

Swedish Lessons in Love and Geology

Our three day trip to Sweden didn't get off to the greatest start. SR and I began running up the steep hills of Söderåsen with the now heaviest baby jogger in the world. I don't really know why; perhaps we were just tired, but we started fighting. Rather, I should say, I don't really know how to fight, so I started crying. But then, a Swedish woman on a horse crossed our path. She was around 55 years old with a creamy, white complexion, dark hair and blue eyes. We talked about the park and how Americans are so interested in geneology. "He hadn't time for me," she said in her wonderful Swedish accent of a relative she had tried to contact. Soon she was gone and we looked at each other and our beautiful son. Perhaps the woman was an angel.

Perhaps the key is focusing more on each other than our individual lives.

We didn't fight the rest of the trip, but talked a lot about how our lives have changed since we've moved. And we talked about eventually moving to Greenland or Alaska to practice medicine. We both have adventurous hearts and think those places would be wonderful for our kids to live for a while. Of course, we need to be done with our medical training first.

It was hard not to have the time of our lives the rest of the weekend. What is better than running for hours on a gorgeous mountain with someone you love?

Okay, technically one of us ran while the other power hiked with The Lorax in backpack. And technically, Söderåsen is a not a generic mountain, but a horst (raised land pushed together between two faults). Being from the Midwestern US, I was not previously familiar with horsts as geological formations.

We ran three days in a row, both over 20 miles on the second day. The trails were amazing. And great training for the Trans-Alpine run in September!

Now we're back to normal life, but I have a deep happiness. Perhaps the pictures say it all...

(above is our own version of the photo I took from the internet in my last post :)).

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

...

My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.